Bank of Japan Adopts Negative Interest Rate; Lifts Sensex, Rupee

Indian stock markets snapped a three-week losing streak, while the rupee rallied 45 paise to close at 67.78/dollar, following the Bank of Japan’s surprise move to cut its benchmark interest rate below zero on Friday.

“The Market surged to a two-week high from a sluggish terrain due to the Bank of Japan’s surprise rate cut by 20 basis points to negative 0.1 per cent which is expected to stimulate optimism for global growth,” said Vinod Nair of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

BoJ’s “bold” move comes days after the US Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged. Last week, the European Central Bank had also hinted about more stimulus measures. Analysts say central banks across the globe will continue to take drastic steps to support global growth, which will benefit equities.

“We continue to call for a 25-basis point Reserve Bank of India repo rate cut on February 2… Growth remains weak. Our lead indicators are tracking growth at 5 per cent in the old GDP series in the December quarter,” he said.

More importantly, Yes Bank’s asset quality remained largely stable as compared to ICICI Bank, which a day earlier had reported a threefold increase in provisions because of a sharp rise in bad loans.

Yes bank reversed the impression which ICICI gave yest abt generic spike up in NPAs…All other Pvt banks have posted good nos..Relief !
— Vivek Pandey (@IVivekPandey) January 29, 2016
ICICI Bank, which had slumped over 6 per cent in morning trade, closed 1.2 per cent lower at Rs 230.10. Yes Bank surged nearly 11 per cent to end at Rs 746.90.

Also helping sentiments were foreign institutional investors, who turned net buyers in the cash market after many days. FIIs, who had dumped shares worth over Rs 11,000 crore in January 2016, bought shares to the tune of Rs 572 crore on Friday.

Analysts are hopeful of a pre-Budget rally, especially if FIIs resume buying in domestic markets and the rupee stabilizes.

Scare of further fall in Rupee has made FIIs sell more recently; they will come back! Count on accelerated domestic fund flow too!
— Porinju Veliyath (@porinju) January 26, 2016
The Nifty ended 1.87 per cent higher at 7,563.55, while the Sensex ended 1.64 per cent higher at 24,871. But the nearly 5 per cent fall in January is stock markets’ worst monthly performance since August 2015. However, traders are betting on “interesting” times ahead.